Awakening
by Ink Dove
Summary: The light was too intense for my eyes. Every colour imaginable reflected off of my glasses, blinding me. Where was I? Voices, too loud, spoke from somewhere out of my perspective, and unseen hands restrained me. Where was I?
1. Chapter 1

**AWAKENING**

**BY MELISSA JEROME**

_____________________________________

**Prologue**

The light was too intense for my eyes. Every colour imaginable reflected off of my glasses, blinding me. Where was I? Voices, too loud, spoke from somewhere out of my perspective, and hands restrained me. I thought I recognised them, but I had to get these glasses out of my eyes; they didn't do anything for my vision anymore. Suddenly, they were off, and I blinked. Everything was so ... rich. Way too real.

My voice crackled as I tried to speak, "A-Alex? Cameron?"

And then I blacked out.

**Chapter One**

The houses blurred past as I accelerated, and Alex turned the music up deafeningly louder. It was Christmas, and we were on our way to Cameron's for his annual party.

"I can't believe he's still holding these," Alex muttered, "we've had parties since grade school."

"Hey, you used to enjoy them," I pointed out.

"Yeah, well now they're just a pain in the Christmas ass," she muttered, looking down and tapping her nails on the gifts she held in her lap. "Say, since when do you give gifts to Cameron's parents?"

"Since I got a second job, a roommate and a car to go buy stuff," I replied.

Alex scoffed. "Roommate?! Yeah right! I pay half the rent, all of the hydro, and all of the sattelite! Consider me co-owner!" She threw her hands up into the air for emphasis.

I rolled my eyes as my little Pinto bottomed out after a speed-bump. The CD skipped a little, and then we were off.

"So, how much do you want to bet that we're going to end up working on his Civic?" I asked. Every year since we were seventeen, our Christmas parties usually ended working on Cameron's Honda. Now, four years later, he still hadn't upgraded.

We parked on the road and got out into the rain; we hadn't had a single white Christmas since 2010. Cameron greeted us each with a snowball in the arm, and then we were inside. His house hadn't changed much: shag carpet, faux leather sofas, parents loitering in the kitchen. After all these years, he still hadn't moved out.

"Hey! Hey! Guess what I got you?" He asked Alex with enthusiasm.

"A coupon to 7-11 and some nail polish?" she sighed. She had gotten the same thing every year since we were in middle school.

"Darnit!" Cameron huffed, leading us into the living room.

"It's really not that hard to guess," Alex muttered to herself.

"And you got me . . . ?" I prompted.

"You'll see," Cameron said. I was hoping for a new Koontz novel. He gestured to the sofa facing the large-screen TV, which vaguely reminded me of the movies. He then swiftly grabbed a box from under the tree, and dropped it in my lap. This was no Koontz novel, I could tell from the weight of it.

"Open it up!" he encouraged as I looked sheepishly at it. I'd only gotten him a t-shirt and twenty bucks.

Slowly, I tore off the wrapping paper, as carefully as a bombmaker handling explosives. I gasped along with everyone in the room: It was a heavy diamond necklace. I lifted it from the box, tears streaming from my eyes. I had had one exactly like this before, from my grandmother's jewellery set, but it had been lost in the move. I had grieved for it for months, and here was an exact replica.

"Oh my goodness! Cameron!" I dropped the necklace with a _tinkle_ and lunged into his arms.

"I think she likes it," Peter, Cameron's dad, said.

"I love it! Thank you!" I hugged him tighter, and he smiled.

"Can I put it on you?" Cameron asked. Alex rolled her eyes. She wasn't one for the sentiments.

I nodded and he grabbed it off the sofa in a quick swoop, turning me around. I lifted up my hair as he fastened it around my neck.

"I saved up for four years to get this. I had pictures of it from your Facebook, so I took them to my cousin and he made an exact replica." he said. His cousin owned a jewelery shop in Kamloops.

"It's perfect," I whispered.

The moment was suddenly ruined by Steven coming in and throwing a snowball at us. "YOU'RE IT!"

"YOU'RE ON!" We all yelled, and I grabbed my coat before following the others out.

A snow war ensued in his 5-acre backyard, until Steven got the quad and started to chase us around. His property was bordered by woods, so we took off into the thick brush before his brother could run us flat.

"Hurry! Steven knows these woods like the back of his hand!" Cameron yelled.

I plummeted into a short ravine, and the two stopped, jumping in to help me up. Suddenly a harsh wind picked up and we all looked skyward, Cameron's hands on my arms, Alex standing upright. Our hair flew around our heads, and my necklace tinkled on my neck, the diamonds clicking together musically. Alex's baseball cap flew off, but she was frozen in mid-step by an invisible entity.

"Run," she muttered. My boot was stuck in some branches, however, and Cameron wouldn't leave me, so we all stayed put.

"It seems like you three kids need to run along home now," a male voice said. Cameron shuddered.

"What do you want from us?" Cameron asked loudly.

The man advanced, his bare feet barely brushing the snow beneath him. He had long, red hair trimmed into two equally parted curtains around his head. His white dress shirt was muddy and torn, hanging off of his slender, ghostly pale body. His eyes were supernaturally red, a red that couldn't be achieved by any contact lenses. He growled and lunged, stopping just above us, on the edge of the ravine.

"Something you'd never want to give me," he growled. His voice sounded like shattering glass.

"Name your price," I said weakly. I must have twisted my ankle, because I felt dizzy and sluggish.

"Blood."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Cameron's grip tightened on my arm. Alex gasped. Even a glimpse of blood and she was out cold. I was trying to wrap my head around his answer. Blood? Who in their right mind would want blood? Was he some sort of vampire? But it was daylight . . . snowing, but daylight.

"Never," Cameron growled, "You're never hurting her."

Alex leaned closer to us. "Um, hello? What about me?" she growled in his ear.

Cameron just glared at her and shifted his posture so that he was more in front of me.

The man was crouching now, like he was about to spring. He had a pale shimmer to hiis skin that I vaguely noticed now. My vision was blurry because my glasses were smudged from the fall . . . or maybe I was just going to pass out.

He snarled, like a fearsome mountain lion. I franitcally looked at my friends, hoping for some clue as to what to do. Run, or surrender? His red eyes were boring into the top of my head. A sudden flicker of recognition crossed his face.

"You killed my Jaqueline," the man whispered harshly. "You killed my sweetheart."

I, being a mild-tempered Virgo of modest means, was baffled. I would never kill anybody! Desperately searching around for another presence in the ravine, I found only my friends, staring at me in disbelief.

"I . . . never," I started to say, but Cameron held me down in the snow.

"She never killed your Jaqueline," Cameron finished loudly. His nails dug into my sweater as the man jumped down in about point-two of a second.

"Don't play stupid with me, girl," the man said. Suddenly he ripped off his shirt to reveal seven scars on his shoulder, and one along his collarbone. They were white, and looked fresh. Alex gasped, knees quivering. "I am William Garland of the Fraser Coven. You . . . _met _Jaqueline in the woods here last June. She tried to kill you, but you had a lighter and burned her before she could bite."

Bite? Bite?! What was he talking about? And I never carried anything with me but a wallet and my car keys!

"Are you . . . a-an . . . animal?" I gasped, and Cameron crouched lower, holding my shoulders up.

"No," he growled, "but I do like a good fight."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

William sprung as quick as a cobra snatching up it's prey, flashing past Cameron to stand beside me. Alex drew in a quick breath and rocked back on her heels, ready to run. I nodded with my eyes and her jaw tensed before she ran into the woods, leaving our captor to kill us.

"J-Just leave us . . . a-alone," I whispered. Willam bared his teeth and leaned downwards, a hungry look in his eyes.

"Not when my prey is such a willing participant," William sneered, and, quick as a flash, his teeth sunk into my jugular, and I screamed, kicking and writhing in Cameron's grasp. Suddenly he landed a punch to William's jaw, but the pain was too overwhelming for me to pull him off of me . . . I was going to die . . .

Cameron collapsed, his hand disfigured by shattered bone. My screams were fading as I heard urgent calls from the other direction. A skid of snow landed atop me as our newfound saviors arrived, but I could only sigh as William was pushed off of me, my blood staining the snow like wine to a fine rug . . .

The light was too intense for my eyes. Every colour imaginable reflected off of my glasses, blinding me. Where was I? Voices, too loud, spoke from somewhere out of my perspective, and hands restrained me. I thought I recognised them, but I had to get these glasses out of my eyes; they didn't do anything for my vision anymore. Suddenly, they were off, and I blinked. Everything was so ... rich. Way too real.

My voice crackled as I tried to speak, "A-Alex? Cameron?"

And then I blacked out.

". . . lost so much blood. We're not sure of her chances of a full recovery . . ."

". . . I'd give it fifty - fifty . . ."

". . . oh, God, wake up, wake up . . ."

". . . heart rate's up, that's a good sign . . ."

". . . come on, you're better than this . . ."

". . . she's allergic to morphine, penicillin, preservatives and soya . . ."

". . . no good, no good . . ."

". . . she's waking up!"

A million different voices swirled around me, and I was suddenly aware of a pair of uncomfortably warm hands squeezing my left. I shook them off, and that sudden movement sent a flurry of voices surging through the air. My eyelids fluttered as hands worked around me, checking vital signs. My heart was galloping, and suddenly all the air rushed out of me, with a distinct _thud_. Having always been acutely aware of my senses from the time I was young, I realised that I had no heartbeat. That had stopped with my lungs, in one great final act to live.

Was I in heaven?

Alex was weeping beside me, and my mind noted that this was the first time she'd consciously cried since she was a baby, or so she'd told me. My throat was parched, and the burn was no less as I reflexively scooped up the water bottle she held and took a gulp.

I could hear her pulse distinctly in my head: _tha-dump . . . tha-dump . . . tha-dump . . ._

"Alex, why're you crying?" I managed to gasp out. She smelled . . . salty, with a hint of hairspray chemicals and nail polish to mask it. Others stood around me, frozen as if in fear, but I paid them no attention.

She blinked and dried her nose with a Kleenex. "Because . . . they said you were going t-to die and I know it was all my fault for going back to Cameron's! But stupid me, I headed the wrong way and came across more of them! I told them the story and they j-just took off, leaving me stranded! And I had no way of knowing what had happened to you!"

I bit my lip, and she suddenly looked up, but just as suddenly looked down fearfully.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with my face or something?" I asked, not seeing the source of her sudden personality 180. Her scent burned in my throat, but I mentally fought it off.

"Y-Your eyes . . ." she muttered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Note: I know chapter three was a bit rushed, sorry for that. I was a bit stressy, and my usual bands weren't working magic on my head like usual. It's the last day before school goes back, so I hope that my writing is up to your standards, O Glorious Readers/Reviewers. **

***** BREAKING DAWN SPOILER *****

**Chapter Four**

I blinked, taking a deep breath. What was she talking about?

"My _eyes_? What the - " I began. My voice sounded like a million diamonds clinking together; like my necklace. Suddenly a pale hand stuck a compact mirror in my face and I recoiled. A growl burned it's way from my throat and into the air, and I bared my teeth at the surprise. Mentally shaking myself, I let the growl fall to a low rumble. What the heck was I _on_?

I looked into the little compact and was shocked at what I saw: red eyes, identical to those of William's, stared back at me in disbelief. My face was a perfect marble, an even white that made my face look very . . . nice. I had always hated that my cheeks were constantly hot and blotchy, and now they were smooth, cold. I gasped and looked up at the person who held the mirror. His skin was identical to mine, but his eyes were an uneasy amber.

"What am I _on_?" I groaned. Alex got up to go get another Kleenex, and my mind was suddenly filled with the ways I could kill her, to rip open her throat and drink her pulsing blood. _So fresh, _my mind whispered, _so warm_.

Before the thought of getting up was fully in my head, I was standing. Shaken by this speed, I turned quickly to amber-eyes in search of answers. And fast. Alex was waiting to die . . .

"Try to attack her and we'll have to restrain you." He warned, as if in response to my thoughts.

"I - I . . ." I had no answer to that.

Amber-Eyes began again, "You and your friend were attacked by a rogue vampire. Alex managed to escape, but Cameron . . . well, he's still under, shall we say. You were almost dead when we found you. Thirty seconds and you would've been crow's food. Luckily you sent Alex to run, or else we would've had a lot of explaining to do. We rushed you across to our house in Forks. It's lucky we went hunting on our way to Alaska, or else we would've never found you."

Just then I was consciously aware of a group of people huddled in by the door. They watched me with wary eyes, all except for two: a pretty brunette carrying a young girl in her arms, and a blonde man who had a stethoscope around his neck. He seemed to be the doctor, because he was wearing scrubs.

"Uh, hi," I muttered, casting my eyes to the ground. I had never been good with staring. I expected to blush, but my cheeks remained even. "I guess I should thank you for saving my life." I rocked back on my heels and bit my lip, embarrassed.

The blonde man stepped forward, and I looked up. His eyes betrayed no emotion except calm, so I met him halfway and shook his hand.

"I'm Dr. Carlisle Cullen," he said, nodding.

"Uh, Melissa Jerome," I managed, a bit intimidated.

"So you're a vampire now," Carlisle said.

"So I'm a vampire now," I repeated. The word sounded strange on my tongue.

The brunette stepped forward, almost mirroring my nervousness. Tentatively, she shook my hand. "I'm Bella Cullen, and this is my daughter, Renesmee Cullen." The girl peeked out from under her mother's hair and smiled, showing two tiny fangs. Her pulse was in my head, but her blood did not call to me: It was tainted with a scent I didn't like.

"Hi, Renesmee!" I said as nice as I could without my voice trembling.

"Hi, Melissa." She said from her perch, in a clear, sing-song voice.

Bella smiled at me and put Renesmee down, and she raced over to Amber-Eyes. I smiled back. "Who's he?" I asked.

"That's Edward, her father. He's the one who found you first." She explained, and I nodded. Alex had sat back in her stiff chair, and I was glad. One more whiff of her scent and I would surely lunge.

"Hello, Edward." I said, feeling a bit more comfortable with my new voice.

"Hey," He replied as Renesmee swung from his neck, squealing, "Daddy! Daddy! Can I show her? Can I show her?"

"Show me what?" I asked, curious.

"Oh, she, uh . . . well, let her explain." Edward said, and Renesmee reached up, pecked her dad on the cheek, and went over to me.

"Let me show you what happened," she offered, holding out her hand. I let her jump quickly into my arms, and she pressed her hand to my neck. A sudden onslaught of images rushed through my head, from the border crossing to the back seat of a car to a highway to now. I let the air escape from in between my teeth, startled. Suddenly it was over and she jumped down and smiled up at me. "See?"

"W-Wow," was all I could manage. Suddenly, in the back of my mind, came a bunch of swear words and a _Where am I?_

"What the heck? Get out of my head!" I growled, clawing at my hair. Edward stiffened, his expression confused.

"Who's in your head?" Carlisle asked, fretful. The audience shrank back a touch.

"I don't know! But it was like a bunch of swearing and then 'where am I?'" I explained.

"Cameron," A black-haired girl announced. "He's waking up."

"Alice, go check on him." Carlisle ordered, and Black-Hair was out of the room in a flash.

"That is sooooo cool!" Alex said, and my body tensed for the scent of her blood as she spoke, but none came.

"What?" Everybody asked in unison.

"You're obviously telepathic! So that's how we were always coordinated!" Alex announced, smiling.

"N-No way. Not possible." I stuttered.

"Well, she does have a point. You seem to be hearing his thoughts, but only his. Maybe it's a mate to mate thing." Edward said.

"Mate? We're not dating or anything!" I said. "We're just . . . friends."

"Sometimes vampires who were really close as humans end up being each other's perfect match in their new life." Carlisle explained. "Like Esme and I." He gestured to a pretty thirty-something woman with dark, unruly hair. She rolled her eyes.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! Niiiiiice!" Alex laughed, throwing her head back in peals of laughter. I had crushed on Cameron since our middle school days, and Alex was just waiting to hear something like this.

_Ohhhhh . . . that is sooooo wrong. _Cameron thought, and I burst into laughter too.


	5. Chapter 5

**Note: Thanks to tashLOVE for the reviews. Love your stories! Oh and I don't own anything! Not the rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock thing! (That's from The Big Bang Theory . . . watch it!!!) Not even Chocolate Lucky Charms! (Oh and Alex said the Lucky Charms idea was stupid, but I think it's funny! But then again, I'm a nerd, so maybe not ...)**

**Chapter Five**

While I was given an outline of vampiric rules, Alex was to be sitting on the sofa, eating Chocolate Lucky Charms and watching SpongeBob SquarePants reruns. She wasn't allowed to know anything else about my vampirism, so she kept herself busy with her favorite show.

It was my idea for her to eat the Lucky Charms: after she ate, her scent would be obscured by the cereal. Bella supported my theory and handed over a bowl of Renesmee's breakfast for the cause.

"Anything to help," Bella had said, and Renesmee nodded, plopping down beside Alex on the sofa to watch SpongeBob. Bella retreated to a white bean-bag chair with a large novel in hand.

Carlisle had taken me upstairs and into a large wood-paneled office that looked elegantly modern. I sat in one of the large, comfortable leather chairs as he listed off the vampire laws.

"Basically, Melissa, you just need to keep the secret. Only a handful of humans know what we are. You can't just go and tell your family or your other friends. I'm not saying they will never find out, but you have to mainatin a good cover story just in case." He put his hands together like a pondering teacher, fingertip to fingertip. He stared at me intently from across his heavy glass-topped desk, waiting for a reply.

I gulped, a tiny bit intimidated. Downstairs, SpongeBob and Patrick were playing in JellyFish Fields. Renesmee giggled. I sighed and turned my gaze to the gleaming desk. My hands were sparkling minutely in the overcast.

"I . . . I, uh . . . well, you see . . . I don't exactly _need_ a cover story . . ." I began. Carlisle blinked.

"Forks is only so big, Melissa. Word gets around." Carlisle said.

"Yeah, but Langley's hee-uge. And plus, where I live, everybody's a goth or punk or lolita or gangster or just plain weird. My apartment complex is too big for me to catch any unwanted attention. Plus, these eyes will fit in! My neighbours all wear red contacts, and so does the landlord." I said in a 'Duh' voice. Carlisle blinked rapidly, apalled by my living environment. Cameron chuckled.

"You're not going back to Langley." Carlisle said in a flat voice.

"What!? But I have all of my stuff! I'm a Canadian citizen! I have rights!" I said, upset. I loved my little shared apartment, from the orange and green flower wallpaper in the kitchen to the way you have to jump up and down to get the elevator to go.

"We took care of it. You're almost all set up for Forks." Carlisle said, pushing a form in my direction with his slender fingers. It was a dual citizenship application form, with 'RUSH ORDER' stamped across the top. I picked up the pen like I normally would have, but it shattered into a million tiny plastic pieces in my palm, the blue ink spattering on the hardwood and my blouse. It was cleaned up in an instant, with Carlisle now beside me.

"You ruined the form. That was our last one, too." Carlisle said calmly, picking up the spattered application and throwing it into the wastebasket in the corner.

"That's okay. I wasn't going to apply anyways." I confessed. I had actually planned to scribble all over the form. Cameron laughed in my head, and I saw a brief glimpse of him, Jasper and Emmett playing rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock in my head. I mentally rolled my eyes. Somebody had been watching too many sitcoms in their past life.

"It's a good thing that this wasn't your last option. There are two other things you can do if you want to stay in Canada," Carlisle explained, having returned to his seat. "You can go back to your apartment, but you can't go to college or see your other friends or family."

"That seems acceptable," I said, nodding.

"Second, there's a secret city underneath Vancouver called The Vancouver Underground, or just The Underground. It was built just for vampires and spreads the entire of Vancouver. You can try to find an apartment there. Here's the address." Carlisle handed me a standard business card labeled 'WESTERN REALTY'. "Call the fax number. It's really the Underground's directory. If you request directions, make sure you're by yourself. Nobody can know about it, and it's only for vampires with dire emergencies."

"Got it." I said. Cameron nodded to this one in his head. I told him to shut up and quit ruining my focus.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

"I don't know what to say," I said, eyes wide. I was standing in the garage with the Cullens surrounding me, and Emmett was holding out the keys to a brand-new black Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé. Alex was still watching Spongebob, and Cameron was afraid to come near Alex, so he stayed in his room.

"It's a sweet ride, with every feature you could dream up, and more?" Emmett suggested, rattling the keys in front of my face.

"Um, thanks, but I'll stick to speechlessness." I replied, slowly taking the keys. My thumb went to trace the logo on the key, but instead embedded in it was a single, large, flat diamond. Cameron gaped, his thoughts aflurry in my head.

Rosalie stepped forward. "I tried to save your necklace, but William, the fashion loser, ripped off of your neck with his teeth. I managed to save one perfect diamond, and I decided to put it in your key as a reminder of the necklace." She winked at Emmett, who grabbed my index finger and pressed down on the back of the key. The headlights blinked twice and the driver's side door automatically opened. A soft jazz number echoed through the garage, and I gasped again: the inside was emerald green leather. The steering wheel was made of what looked to be stainless steel, and so was the console. A touch-screen GPS was embedded into the dash, waiting for me to program it.

"How much did you _pay_ for this?" I asked. Sure, it was my dream car, but I wasn't about to make payments on it that were worth more than a year's rent. Cameron mentally rolled his eyes at this: he would surely cover it.

Edward read my thoughts. "It's already fully payed for. We forgot to tell you that we're richer than Bill Gates." He smirked, and Bella lightly punched his shoulder.

"Are not," she whispered, though everybody could hear anyways.

"Still," Edward replied, smiling. Just then I was conscious of my phone, vibrating in my pocket. I answered it in a flash, but suddenly an odd sensation overcame me that would have been the blood draining from my face, if I wasn't immortal. Cameron's mother was on the line.

"Dear? Dear, are you alright?" She asked me in a worried voice.

"I'm fine, Marina, really. There was a little . . ." I looked around at the Cullens, who were staring at me with disbelief, ". . . complication, so to say. Cameron's with me, he's alright too, we're just in a bit of a tight spot. We can't come back. Alex wants her nail polish and the gift card, by the way, and I bet your Christmas dinner was lovely. I really can't say anymore. Tell Peter hi and tell Steven the snow war has just begun. Bye." I hung up and sighed. Just then Cameron was at my side, pale and beautiful.

"Your mum called," I said casually, and he growled. I looked up at his face and saw that it was contorted with rage.

"You think this is funny?! My mum just called, and you just blow her off?! I can't believe you!" Cameron said, grabbing my shoulders and pushing me against a glass-fronted cabinet.

"What. Are. You. Doing?!" I asked, his rage, not his hold, restraining me. I would never hurt him, ever.

Cameron bared his teeth. "You could have told her to run! You could have spared her, and now she's going to be on every hit list in the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Coven especially!" He hit me in the shoulder with his fist, hard. The cabinet buckled.

"I didn't know! I didn't know! Please!" I begged, suddenly guilty. I winced as he prepared for another blow. A collective gasp rattled throughout the room as a hand was placed on his raised fist. It lowered, and I was able to see the face.

An entire legion of wolves had joined our little party.


End file.
